Power of Productivity : Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Beta Released

No more Waiting!

The Dynamics CRM 2011 Global beta is released!

Today, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team releases the beta of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, for both cloud-based and on-premises deployments. The beta of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments will be available in all 40 markets in eight languages.

There is more goodness at the CRM Resource Center ‘What’s New’ articles:

What's New in CRM Online?

What's new in CRM On-Premise?

To try out the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 beta or sign up for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online beta visit www.crm2011beta.com.

Videos here.

Get, Set.... Explore!!!

Exciting Developer Experience with MS CRM SDK 4.0.12

Advanced Developer Extensions

Advanced Developer Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, also referred to as Microsoft xRM, is a new set of tools included in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK that simplifies the development of Internet-enabled applications that interact with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. It uses well known ADO.NET technologies. This new toolkit makes it easy for you to build an agile, integrated Web solution!

Advanced Developer Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM supports all Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment models: On-Premises, Internet-facing deployments (IFDs), and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The SDK download contains everything you need to get started: binaries, tools, samples and documentation.

Authentication for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Newly added authentication documentation and sample code for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online that does not require using certificates, making it easier for you to write code for your online solutions.

There are quite a few other updates in this version of the SDK package. Refer to the release history on the first page of the CHM for a complete list.

The latest verion of SDK 4.0.12 is available for download. Download it.

Take a 10 Minute Quick Start Walkthrough here.

Enjoy!

Customer Care Accelerator available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM in Codeplex

Customer Care Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is available for download on the CRM Accelerators codeplex site.

The Customer Care Accelerator focuses on delivering contact center enabling functionality, such as the ability to create a unified desktop by combining data elements from disparate line of business applications and displaying it in a single user interface. The core Customer Care
business scenarios highlighted by this accelerator include the following:

 Integrated desktop: Customers can aggregate information from diverse business applications into an integrated desktop providing employees with a 360° view of the customer interactions. Customer service representatives have immediate access to business critical information to serve customers quickly and efficiently, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
 Duplicate Data Entry: Organizations can streamline business processes by creating desktop automation workflows. Process automation eliminates the need for agents to re-enter the same data in multiple applications. Minimizing duplication helps to reduce human error and ensures a consistent customer service experience.
 Computer Telephony Integration (CTI): Organizations are provided with a consistent framework to connect CTI systems with key lines of business.
 Activity Reporting: Contact center managers have swift access to agent desktop transaction reporting, helping them to identify process bottlenecks. This capability is currently addressed by ICC Accelerator AIF component.

CCA is available as permissive shared source and is a reference example that can be adapted to fit the needs of a customer as well as additional business scenarios.

Happy CRMing

Microsoft Translator inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Another nice cool feature! Microsoft Translator inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
This customization is designed to call the ‘Microsoft® Translator’ service from within CRM. This example uses a custom button, included in an entity form, to call the service and translate text into another language.
Recently Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team has published a helpful post with the necessary steps to invoke the Microsoft Translator.
Check out the post here.

Record Counter for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 released in MSDN Code Gallery

Are you facing difficulty in counting the total number of records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0? Are you wondering if you could find a way to count the number of Pages and Records? If the answer is yes, then it is worth downloading my project from MSDN Code Gallery.

Record Counter walkthrough document is included in the Downloads tab which walks you through the plugin functionality and deployment procedure. Record Counter Plugin is available for download from here.

This simple plugin designed for MSCRM 4.0 is still in Beta stage. I am open to suggestions, if you find any bugs or would like to suggest an enhancement, please feel free to ask.

Few Screenshots below:

Quick find view

Form Assistant

Lookup view

Auto Resolve Lookups

Public Views

Advanced find

Update Rollup 6 for MS CRM 4.0 Released

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Development team continues to release regular rollups. Microsoft has released Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The update includes bug fixes and performance enhancements packaged together for easy deployment. Update Rollup 6 is available for all languages that are supported by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

For more information about this release, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 970148: Update Rollup 6 is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79f90982-c039-41c2-af8e-3119ecf27790&displaylang=en

Did you know: Sort records by multiple columns in MS CRM

Just hold down the SHIFT key and click the column heading and you can sort on multiple columns.

Click here for more details.

Did you know: Easy way to troubleshoot Asynchronous failures using [Advanced Find]

MSCRM 4.0 uses a lot of System Jobs to drive many features such as Workflows, Import Data,Duplicate Detections, Campaign Activities distribution, Send Bulk E-Mail and more... These jobs are processed by the Asynchronous Service and it can happen that the service fails to process these jobs. Jobs can fail or get stuck in waiting state.

Quick step: Add Error Code and Message Column in Advanced find and Filter the System Jobs which are showing error Code.

Detailed steps:
Here are a few steps you can try to get more information about the System Jobs failures reasons:
• Log into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• Go to Settings \ System Jobs, click Advanced Find button, click Save As to save your custom query, name it “Problematic System Jobs” for instance and click OK.
• Click Edit Columns, Add Columns and select Error Code and Message. Click OK. These two columns will be helpful for troubleshooting.
• Get back to Advanced Find screen. Click on Show Details. Select the Error Code field and select Contains Data criteria. [Filter on the System Jobs which are showing errors]
• Click on Save Button.

Now when you select this view in Settings \ System Jobs, you can see the Error Code and Error stack in Message Column which states the reason of the failure.

The failure is likely to be that the Asynchronous Service cannot contact the CRM Web Services because of a bad configuration. Error Code : -2,147,204,346

Isn't it easy !!! Happy Troubleshooting.

Please refer the following articles for more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;947423

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;950416

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;950542

Did you know: MSCRM and Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts are documented in the CRM help file but here is a quick list of MSCRM, Outlook and general shortcuts.

Top keyboard shortcuts
Select all text in the current field or current list	CTRL+A
Close an active form	ALT+F4
Move forward through a form's fields	TAB
Move backward through a form's fields	SHIFT+TAB
Save a form	CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12
Save and close a form	ALT + S
Expand/collapse Form Assistant	CTRL+SHIFT+F
Cancel edits and close a form	ESCAPE
Delete a record	CTRL+D
Save and then open a new form	CTRL+SHIFT+S
Outlook keyboard shortcuts
Switch to Mail	CTRL+1
Switch to Inbox	CTRL+SHIFT+I
Switch to Outlook Calendar	CTRL+2
Switch to Outlook Contacts	CTRL+3
Switch to Outlook Tasks	CTRL+4
Display the Address Book	CTRL+SHIFT+B
Create a new Appointment	CTRL+SHIFT+A
Create a new Contact	CTRL+SHIFT+C
Create a new Task	CTRL+SHIFT+K
Check Spelling	F7
Other Keyboard shortcuts
Copy text	CTRL+C
Paste text	CTRL+V
Undo previous text change	CTRL+Z
Cut text	CTRL+X
Delete text	DELETE
Move the insertion point to the start of the next word	CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the start of the previous word	CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Select all text in the current field	CTRL+A
Cancel the current task or command, or close a selected list or dialog box	ESC
Move up through a list of records	UP ARROW
Move down through a list of records	DOWN ARROW
Expand or collapse the preview in a list view	SPACEBAR
Open the selected record	ENTER
Select all records on the current page	CTRL+A

Utilize MSCRM and Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts and get things done faster :)

Introducing “Did you know” Series….

Discover the fascinating facts and amazing stories about the Dynamics world. Loaded with useful trivia facts about Microsoft xRM.
In this series, I intend to keep my posts short and easy to understand. With that being said, I welcome you all to my blog! I intend to update it frequently.

A little more on MS CRM 5

Brad Wilson, GM of Microsoft Dynamics CRM has discussed some details of the next major release at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this week. According to Brad, Dynamics CRM 5.0 will sport improvements in the user interface and data visualisation features, enhanced sales and marketing capabilities, and tighter integration with Microsoft's SharePoint Server collaboration platform.

The full article can be read at http://www.crn.com/software/218500733

Coming Soon..!!! New Solution Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

What is Solution Accelerators?

CRM Solution Accelerators are a range of add-on solutions developed for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 customers and partners. These ready-made solutions include event management, sales forecasting, service, notifications, and analytics.

Each accelerator is available at no cost and showcases how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 platform can be configured and extended to broaden marketing, sales, and service capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and partners are encouraged to further extend these accelerators to meet their specific business needs.

Microsoft has announced 3 new CRM Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. No doubt, this helps current Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and Partners to establish business insight across social networks, channel-centric organizations and Web interaction channels. The accelerators come with full source code so you can modify them to best fit your needs, or use them as examples for creating other customizations.

Social Networking Accelerator

The Social Networking Accelerator allows business professionals to monitor and analyze customers’ conversations on social networking sites, and as a result, provides real-time status updates about their products and services. This accelerator delivers integration with Twitter.

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator

The Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Accelerator allows businesses to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to distribute sales leads and centrally manage sales opportunities across channel partners.

Portal Integration Accelerator

The Portal Integration Accelerator easily connects Microsoft Dynamics CRM to an organization’s Web experience.

The new CRM Accelerators will be made available in the next few weeks. Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and partners can download each of these solutions from http://crm.dynamics.com.

Read more [Microsoft PressPass]

so I’m looking forward to trying this out.

Dynamics CRM 4.0 Rollup 5 Released

Folks, Microsoft has released Update Rollup 5 for Dynamics CRM 4.0. You can read about it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=970141

And download here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5101d801-976b-4c11-bdfc-000b970ef4a3

As always, It is a cumulative update that now incorporates additional bug fixes & performance improvements.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Enterprise Benchmark - 50K Concurrent Users

Feels great! Microsoft and Intel demonstrate new levels of power, price, and performance with this Microsoft Dynamics CRM scalability benchmark. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM benchmark scaled to more than 50,000 users and more than 2.9 million daily transactions.

Read the Press Release here.

Download the Executive Summary.

Get CRM usage information using the IIS Logs

One of the frequent requests I come across is the usage log to monitor adoption. Here is a ready-made solution for you. The article describes how to make use of the IIS logs to get useful information about who is accessing CRM and when.

This technique uses some SQL objects (tables, view and functions), and a reporting services report. The source code for these is available on the MSDN Code Gallery.

Now I will wait for your invitation to the Happy Adoption Day..!!!

Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

A Quick Update:
The CRM team has just released Update Rollup 4 for CRM 4.0 which you can download from here.

· KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/968176
· Download center page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0ddf8e83-5d9c-4fe7-9ae6-f2713a024071

Communications Panel for Microsoft CRM 4.0

While reading Dynamics related blogs today, I found the announcement of Communication Panel for Dynamics CRM 4.0, an interesting add-in for CRM 4.0. I am delighted to see this as it seems to make perfect match - Office Communications Server [OCS] and Dynamics CRM.

The Agent Communications Panel for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 works with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and enables agents to manage their communications (make calls, receive calls, conference, and chat) from their Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

The Agent Communications Panel embeds with CRM itself:

Agent Communications Panel is an XBAP, published to a Web server and opened from a Web browser.

A few interesting facts:

• Make and Receive Phone Calls

• Make and Receive Instant Messages

• Add Audio to an Instant Messaging Session

• Conferencing

• Manage Your Activity Records

And many more……

Download Center: Click here

CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 3 is now available via the download center.

CRM 4.0 Update Rollup 3 is now available via the download center.

· KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=961768

· Download center page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05453fa4-9551-4a88-9852-634a9ad0e140&displaylang=en

Update Rollup 3 is the first UR post-transition to the new rollup servicing model. A very significant advantage of this model is the release predictability as Microsoft ships an update rollup every 8 weeks. The next rollup will release on May 7th. All the major product groups have moved to this rollup servicing model and many more are transitioning now as it’s been a win for Microsoft and our customers.

A few interesting facts about this Update Rollup:

· There are 91 new fixes in this rollup, of which 67 came from the SE Help project. Since UR3 contains the previous two Update Rollups, there are 384 fixes included in UR3 (of which 218 fixes came from the SE Help project).

In terms of priority, the breakdown is as follows:

	Update Rollup 1	Update Rollup 2	Update Rollup 3	Total
P1 (severe bug)	51	22	14	87
P2 (loss of functionality with no workaround)	48	50	39	137
P3 (loss of functionality with workaround)	47	68	34	149
P4 (Customer Design Change Request)	0	7	4	11
Total	146	147	91	384

New version of the CRM SDK 4.0.8 is available for download.

This release of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK includes new documentation and sample code to support server-to-server authentication with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. SDK is available for download @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82E632A7-FAF9-41E0-8EC1-A2662AAE9DFB&displaylang=en

Dynamics CRM Mobile Express Preview now available

The Day has Come. Microsoft has released a "preview" of Mobile Express for CRM, a free mobile application for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Read more about it here. Download it here (registration required).

Join the Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Connect program and suggest ideas of how to make the product better.